Senior House Democrat Makes Surprising Appeal to Republicans to Support Immigration Bill -- So the GOP Can Grow

Charles Rangel (D-NY), a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Joint Committee on Taxation, doesn’t want to see the Republican Party wither away and worries that GOP opposition to immigration reform may be its undoing.

“It will be the end of the Republican Party as we know it… we do need at least a two party system in this country,” Rangel said in a video response (below) via TellDC.com, a website that allows people to ask questions to their elected representatives.

Rangel said he thinks Republicans are wrong to think that Hispanics are more likely to support Democrats and thus won’t benefit by supporting new immigration laws.

“This may be true in the short run but in the long run it gives Republicans as well as Democrats an opportunity to present its principles,” Rangel said.  “They have to broaden their base, and whether it takes one or two years or 10 years...for the Republicans to close their eyes and not recognize that they are losing the women’s vote, the gay votes and minority votes, the time has come as to not just what is good for the party but what is good for the country.”

Watch Rangel’s full remarks to Melissa Hopkins, executive producer of TellDC.com: